Peter Watton is accused of raping a woman jogger just 48 hours after he was released early from prison

A convicted kidnapper raped a woman jogger just 48 hours after he was released early from prison, a court has heard.

Peter Watton, 38, pounced on the 44-year-old victim while she was out running with her dog close to the Duke of Westminster’s estate, in Chester, a jury was told.

The 6ft 3in well-built convict allegedly held the terrified woman captive for nine hours as he repeatedly raped her.

He carried out the terrifying attack just two days after he was released on licence halfway through a six-year prison sentence for kidnap and robbery, Chester Crown Court heard.

Watton repeatedly raped the woman in woodland alongside Duke’s Drive just outside the centre of Chester, it was alleged, then took her to a ‘hidey hole’ on the edge of a field before attacking her again.

He then took her down to the edge of the River Dee where he committed a further rape, holding her captive for a total of nine hours, the jury was told.

The jury was told Watton had also attempted to violently abduct another young woman in 1999, putting his hand up her skirt and trying to seize control of her car.

Owen Edwards, prosecuting, said Watton’s licence conditions on his release from HMP Risley for the later kidnapping required him to sign on with Chester Probation Service and to live at his mother’s address on the Lache estate in the city.

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But he said that on June 14 last year at around 3pm he confronted the woman, shoved her into woodland and told her: ‘I’ve been watching you for two weeks. I know where you live. If you say anything to anyone I’ll hurt you and hurt your family.’

‘He subjected her to the most degrading of sexual attacks,’ said Mr Edwards.

‘He treated her as a sexual plaything.’

Near the end of her ordeal the woman, who had just been forced to perform a sex act on Watton on her knees in the mud near waterworks on the edge of the River Dee, managed to escape around midnight while his jeans were around his ankles, the jury heard.

Peter Watton is accused of raping a woman jogger near the River Dee and holding her captive for nine hours

Mr Edwards said she used a local couple’s telephone to call police, telling them her attacker, who had various tattoos, had the name Pete etched on his knuckles.

Police went to Watton’s house but found he had fled. A five-day manhunt was triggered and Watton was eventually discovered hiding under a railway bridge in Rossett.

He had been spotted by an off-duty special constable as he crossed a railway line between Chester and Wrexham.

‘As the constable looked out of his window he recognised Peter Watton from the pictures released to the police and press,’ said Mr Edwards.

‘Despite the defendant’s best efforts to conceal himself he is 6 feet 3 ins tall and muscle-bound and therefore quite distinctive.’

During the alleged rapes at the first location Watton, who was wearing a hooded top, told the woman he had a knife.

After making her crouch on all fours in the mud he tied her hands behind her back with a rope or laces, Mr Edwards said, before raping her then telling her to get dressed and taking her to his ‘hidey hole’ where more abuse took place.

‘He decided to show his knife and thrust it in and out of the ground.

‘They clambered over a fence and he told her they were heading for the river.

‘They approached an area near some waterworks and she was very scared he intended to murder her.

‘Once again she found herself on her knees performing oral sex upon the defendant.’ After making her escape and contacting police, the woman was taken for medical examination.

Watton claims the sex was consensual and was a ‘brief passionate encounter,’ Mr Edwards added.

The prosecution dismiss this as a ‘preposterous tale.’ ‘If the defendant is right or might be right, the woman has chosen to accuse a man with who she had consensual sex, of violently abducting her against his will,’ said Mr Edwards.

‘The complainant in this case was not to know that by Mr Watton’s own admission in 1999 he had attempted to violently abduct another young woman.

‘He had tried to abduct her in her own car and he had put his hand up her skirt.’

Watton, of Lache, Chester, denies eight counts of rape, two of assault by penetration and one of false imprisonment by ‘unlawfully and injuriously imprisoning and detaining the woman against her will.’